Scripture for Meditation

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Characteristics of the Wicked

“A troublemaker and a villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks maliciously with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, who plots evil with deceit in his heart— he always stirs up conflict. Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy. There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community” Proverbs 6: 12-19.

This passage in Proverbs seems to sum up the characteristics that wicked people possess. The wicked is unproductive. The schemes of the wicked are detestable and evil in the sight of the Lord. Even the very anatomy of the wicked is doing wickedness by winking of the eyes, shuffling of the feet, feet that are swift to do evil and motioning of the fingers. The use of evil anatomy in movies is common in portraying the bad guy. You know right away who the bad guys are by the way they wink their eyes, their posture, and the fingers motioning evil schemes forward and so on. The message is clear. The plot of the wicked is about to unfold.

This passage also states seven characteristics of the wicked in which the Lord hates and is detestable to Him.

First of all, the Lord hates haughty eyes. Haughty means disdainfully proud or snobbish. Haughty also means scornfully arrogant. A person with haughty eyes is showing great pride in his/herself. They scorn others and hold them in contempt. Pride is usually the motivation for all other sin.

God also hates a lying tongue. When we lie, we are opening ourselves up to do the devil’s work. When we tell the truth, we are opening ourselves up to the Spirit so he can move through us. God also hates “hands that shed innocent blood”. Murder. God permits capital punishment to be exercised by governments to impart justice but nowhere in the Bible is murder allowed of innocent people.

Fourthly, God hates “a heart that devises wicked schemes”. God gives us our imaginations but he wants us to use it for good and not for evil. Our imaginations need to be kept pure and clean so God can work through us to do mighty things that bring glory and honor to Him instead of bring destruction and heartache upon people.

God also hates “feet that are quick to rush into evil”. The feet of the wicked are ugly, impure, unprepared to do service for God, and disobedient. The feet of the righteous are in sharp contrast to those of the wicked. The feet of the righteous are beautiful (Isaiah 52:7), pure (1 John 1:9, John 13:1-17), prepared (Ephesians 6:15), and obedient (Genesis 13:17).

A wicked person is also “a false witness who pours out lies”. This harms the innocent and can even be deadly to the person. Without truth, everything starts falling apart. God is truth and he detests lies.

Finally, God hates “a person who stirs up conflict in the community”. Sowing seeds of discord cause division. These seeds are pride, gossip, anger, hatred, a quarrelsome spirit and foolish questions. The wicked do not want there to be unity and pleasantness among God’s people. Those who stir up conflict hate unity and peace. Discord among church members is terrible and is contrary to the spirit of unity that Jesus prayed for. Proverbs 22:10 says “Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife, quarrels and insults are ended.” Troublemakers wreck unity among the church, the community and individual families. Drive them out to achieve peace and unity once again.

Throughout Proverbs God gives wisdom for us to use to recognize the people the righteous should not hang around with. “A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” (Proverbs 12:26). Over one hundred times in Proverbs the wicked is contrasted with the righteous. We must learn to recognize wickedness and wicked people so we are not led astray by them.

Memorize:
“A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” (Proverbs 12:26).

Dear Father in heaven help me to recognize my enemies so I can stay far from their paths. Help me to choose my friends carefully so I can keep being an open vessel in which would allow You to work through me. Help me to stay on the path that the righteous are on and please do not allow the devil to tempt me to sway to the right or the left but keep me on the straight and narrow path.